James Madison Papers
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From James Madison to Congress, 31 January 1817

To Congress

January 31st. 1817.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States.

The Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His most Christian Majesty having renewed, under Special instructions from his Government, the claim of the Representative of Caron de Beau Marchais for One million of livres, which were debited to him in the settlement of his accounts with the United States, I lay before Congress copies of the Memoir on that Subject addressed by the Said Envoy to the Secretary of State.

Considering that the sum, of which the Million of livres in question made a part, was a gratuitous grant from the French Goverment to the United States, and the declaration of that Government, that that part of the grant was put into the hands of Mr De Beau Marchais as its, agent, not as the agent of the United States, and was duly accounted for by him to the French Government; Considering also the Concurring opinions of two Attorneys General of the United States, that the said debit was not legally Sustainable in behalf of the United States, I recommend the Case to the favorable attention of the Legislature, whose authority alone can finally decide on it.1

James Madison

RC (DNA: RG 233, President’s Messages, 14A–D1); FC (ICHi); draft (owned by the Marshall B. Coyne Collection, Chicago, Ill., 1992); Tr of RC and enclosures (DNA: RG 233, President’s Messages, 15A–E1); Tr of RC (DNA: RG 46, Legislative Proceedings, President’s Messages, 15A–E2). RC and FC in John Payne Todd’s hand, signed by JM. For enclosure, see n. 1. Filed with the RC is a forty-two page pamphlet by P. J. Chevallie, Claim of B[e]aumarchais’ Heir Against the United States (Washington, 1817; Shaw and Shoemaker description begins R. R. Shaw and R. H. Shoemaker, comps., American Bibliography: A Preliminary Checklist for 1801–1819 (22 vols.; New York, 1958–66). description ends 40461).

1JM enclosed a one-page translation of Jean Guillaume Hyde de Neuville’s undated letter to James Monroe, accompanied by a five-page translation of Hyde de Neuville’s 22 Jan. 1817 “Memoir” offering “new” evidence to the State Department on behalf of the heirs of Beaumarchais (DNA: RG 46, Legislative Proceedings, President’s Messages, 14A–E2). Hyde de Neuville requested that Monroe submit this new evidence to JM, and added that the Beaumarchais family would be “nearly ruined, if it does not speedily regain a capital, which was devoted to the success of the cause of the United States.”

Hyde de Neuville referred to the disputed claim of Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais over whether the money he had advanced to the United States after 1776 was a loan or a gift and whether Congress still owed him the sum of one million livres. This was a long-standing claim that JM had encountered as early as 1782 in the Continental Congress, and that Thomas Jefferson had resubmitted to Congress in February 1807. After a settlement made in 1783, Congress took the position that no further payments were due to the count. While Congress did not respond to JM’s 31 Jan. 1817 request, James Monroe resubmitted the matter again on 12 Jan. 1818, but the dispute was not finally settled until 1835 (ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States […] (38 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1832–61). description ends , Claims, 334–37, 538–41; PJM description begins William T. Hutchinson et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison (1st ser., vols. 1–10, Chicago, 1962–77; vols. 11–17, Charlottesville, Va., 1977–91). description ends 4:287, 289–90 n. 4.

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